Matia, son of Pesach (Zavodnik)

By Maris Cohen, New Haven

Translated by Eilat Gordin Levitan

Kurenitz was a tiny shtetl; nevertheless, it was greatly diverse. There were
learned men, merchants, stores owners, vagabonds, tradesmen and handymen,
wealthy and poor. I don't need to tell you that for every wealthy man there
were dozens of poor. There were numerous personalities that deserve to be
mentioned here; however, I will concentrate only on one person, Matia Pesach's.
Matia did have a last name but we only found out about his last name in the
U.S. In the U.S. they called him Max Zavodnick. In the old shtetl, we were not
used to last names. It was unnecessary to know last names. There, we called
each other by the name of the father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother, or
their vocation or craft.

We knew each other as Laibe Mashe's, Yehuda Zushe's, Yechiel Kalman the doctor,
Michael the forester, Ara the fisherman, Penia the metal merchant, Shimon the
oilman. Asher the haberdasher, Mordecai the tailor, Eliyahu the smith,
Yarochmiel the shoe repairman. There were two other Yarochmiels who were also
in shoe repair, so we would call them little and big Yarochmiels.

The other was not big and not little. Just Yarochmiel the shoe repairman. The
same way as the old people were named, so were the young people named. Yoshka
Chaim's, Chaim Zalman Elya Yehoshua's, Baroch Vigdaras' (Zukerman), Mendel
Faiga's (Alpert), Havas Rasile's (Shapiro- Alperovitz), Zalman Nachum's
(Kastrel?), Leybzke Lea Atka's, Zertel Pinis' and Sara Reyzel Dvora Shlomo
Sheyna Feigas'. If you just said Sara Reyzel Dvoras', people would not know the
one you are referring to.

In our town, no one knew last names; nevertheless, the generation ties never
ended and no one was ever lost.

Matia, son of Pesach, was a very unique person. A simple guy who could hardly
read and write, on the other hand he could play various instruments. Violin,
flute, clarinet. Matia would write songs and sing them during celebrations. In
his nature, he was a comedian and his rhymes were always very original and
charming. Why was he given this "gift of music" no one could answer.
No one else in his family was a poet or musician.

Matia in his essence seemed to be attracted to far away places. His eyes had
the look of restlessness and a deep desire of wondering. He was a tall man,
skinny and dark.. His appearance was something of a gypsy. In our town, there
was little respect for such people. The people of our town didn't understand or
appreciate him, until one day when he did something that changed everyone's
opinion. In the year 1890 all of a sudden there was inflation in prices and in
the entire region the money lost its value. All the products became extremely
expensive and people were starving. We found out that the merchants of the
farming products took all the local products and transferred them to a nearby
town, Smorgon, to sell them. While we in the shtetl were "sentenced"
to starvation.

One day when there were ten carriages full of products on Smorgon's Street,
ready to be taken out of town, The drivers were sitting in the inn of Yehuda
Zusha's (Alperovitz) drinking alcohol, Matia stealthily went to the carriages
and cut the sacks and let all the produce fall to the ground, for the
townspeople to use. In this way, he revenged the townspeople's being left to
starvation and none of the produce left the town. Everyone was very worried and
Matia hid somewhere. However, he couldn't hide for too long. When he came out
all the merchants beat him mercilessly. Nevertheless, everyone in town was
extremely thankful.

We realize that Matia of all people fought the fight for the town. Everyone
respected him for that. Here in America, Matia had many professions. For some
time, he was a policeman traveling on bicycles around New York making sure the
kosher butchers and restaurants were truly kosher. After a while he became a
street musician. He would compose songs and would wander the streets of New
York singing. Many of his songs became later songs that other singers sang in
entertainment halls. The subject of his songs were usually tragic events. Matia
would compose a song for every tragedy that occurred. In 1906 when the
earthquake in San Francisco destroyed a large part of the town, Matia dedicated
a song to the event.

When General Sarkhoum was burned in the port of New York (a cruise ship with
hundreds of kids aboard), Matia arranged a song for the event. Also, when
Russia lost the war to Japan, there was an original song for it. What was the
root of the choice of Matia to sing about miseries and tragedies? Maybe, his
life was very tragic in that he never reached the lofty desires that his soul
yearned for. Whatever reasons it is his songs were always sad as his appearance
was. Occasionally, Matia would come to New Haven. New Haven was the original
settlement of the people who came from our shtetl. The first settlers in 1880
and 1890 chose it as their "haven." Each time Matia reached New
Haven, there was immediately a mood of holiday. We all knew that he would
generate some excitement in the ambiance that was usually so dreary in our
suburban sleepy town. And we were never disappointed.

Matia died in 1925 in New York City. He was 52. He left behind a son, who was
an engineer, and a daughter, who lived in Philadelphia. When the daughter was
young, she was among the most beautiful girls of Jewish New York City. Let's
recall Matia, son of Pesa, a native of Kurenitz with this memorial for our
shtetl.

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